Branches Book

BRANCHES

"Educating Girls in Africa." One Girl . N.p., 2017. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

Author’s Statement: Lilly Weidhaas

I have always been passionate about education, and particularly women’s education. I spent all four of my years in high school taking every opportunity presented to me to research, discuss, and write about the issues facing education, and attain as much information about this topic as possible. Regardless of the class I was in, I found a way to connect any self-chosen project to education. I have written research papers about race and education within America, opinion pieces grappling with my own struggles to recognize and accept my personal privilege when it comes to education, my own experiences within school, and discussed education with teachers and peers on a daily basis. While I am proud of what I have written and worked on, everything that I have ever done surrounding education has been solution based, about my own experiences, or extremely narrow in terms of what I have been researching. I wanted to do something a bit different for this piece. Instead of looking for a way to fix the problems facing education, I have focused on simply celebrating all that education can do. I wanted to find a way to explain what it is about education that makes accessibility so important, particularly for young girls. My intention for this piece is to provide a general explanation of how the power of education can change the life of a young girl and her family, and ultimately to convey the importance of doing whatever you can to help girls all over the world get access to education. I am passionate about this topic, and I want that to come across in this piece. I hope you enjoy my work about a cause so close to my heart.

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